Save My Life
by tjmack1986
Summary: WARNING! SEASON TWO SPOILERS! Skye eyeballed him softly. "Keep pressure on that." Was all she allowed herself to say, before standing up. On her way out of the room, she grabbed the dead goon's gun. "I'll be back for you." (or an au version of the scene were skye shoots ward)


_**A/N: **_Please bear with me, as this is my first time dipping my toes into this fandom. Constructive Crit is always welcome, but please try to not be mean when giving it.

* * *

"I'm sorry." He muttered. He knew that at this point sorry meant nothing to her. Ward wasn't stupid, he knew that it was going to take a hell of a lot more than an apology for Skye to even think about forgiving him, and he didn't blame her for it. "Look, I know that I made mistakes. A lot of them, and I don't deserve anyone's forgiveness. I just, all I wanted to do was allow you the chance to meet your father."

Skye laughed mirthlessly. "Funny, Ward. Considering that my father seems to be about as big of a sociopath as you."

Ward sighed, he turned his head toward Skye. He truly was sorry for everything, and he did honestly see his error in judgment. Looking her in the eye, he knew that she honestly thought that he hadn't cared about her or the team at all. That was a lie. He had grown to truly enjoy his time with Coulson's team, and more so, his time with Skye.

"If I had known that your father had lost his mind, I wouldn't have brought you here."

"How could you not know!?" Skye yelled.

"I don't work for your father. I don't work for Hydra. I just -" Ward paused, trying to find the correct words. "I don't do well on my own. The longer that I'm alone, the more I get sucked into the past. That's not a place I enjoy visiting."

Skye sighed this time. No matter how much she couldn't stand the man before her right now, she could deny that whatever had actually happened when Ward had been younger, had obviously hurt him deeply. Far worse than he would ever let on.

"Well, if you're really sorry for all this, how about you get me free so that I can help _my _team?"

"You got it." Ward whispered. She watched him focus hard on the wall before him before she heard the audible crack of a thumb snapping. "Shit." He whispered, as he pulled his arms around and rubbed his swelling thumb. "That is really starting to hurt." He mumbled, before he bent over to work on the bindings on his legs.

Once his legs were officially free, he stood up and ran over to Skye. He worked quickly on the binds around her legs, before moving around her to free her arms.

"Alright, you're free." He said softly.

Skye stood up, and offered Ward an almost apologetic look before moving toward the door. She didn't even make it to door before it swung open.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" The large man asked, as he pointed his pistol at Skye's face.

"To save my team. If you don't mind just scooting over just a bit so I can squeeze by."

He growled loudly, slamming the door shut, before cocking his gun and re-aiming at Skye's face. "Time to die. Orders."

What happened next went by so quickly, that Skye didn't even time to process what was happening. The trigger got pulled back slowly, while Ward threw his large frame hard into her, shoving Skye out of the way. The silent air was filled with a couple of gunshots, and the overwhelming smell of gun powder made Skye sick to her stomach.

Skye took a moment to check herself over. She hadn't been shot, that much she knew. Her wrist was sore, probably sprained from the fall to the hard floor. Glancing over at the spot where she had been standing, she saw Ward lying on the ground. Blood was spilling from a wound on the right side of his chest profusely. Then she looked over at the guy sent to kill them both. A shot to the head had taken him down easily.

"Ward." Skye whispered. Her mind kept trying to replay all of the things that he had done, but she was able to successfully shove it all to the back of her mind. "Dammit." She cursed as she pressed her jacket to the wound.

"I'll be alright." Ward gasped out, as he removed her hands from his chest. "Go. Stop Raina."

Skye eyeballed him softly. "Keep pressure on that." Was all she allowed herself to say, before standing up. On her way out of the room, she grabbed the dead goon's gun. "I'll be back for you."

It had just been a whisper and she was certain that Ward hadn't even heard her. However, when she started down the hall she heard him yell out, "I'll hold you too it."

* * *

Skye took slow deep breaths, trying to regain control over her harsh breathing. "I was almost too late." She whispered to Coulson, as she bent over, her hands on her knees.

"You stopped Raina, Skye, that is all that matters."

"And almost got you all killed in the process." In that moment, Skye realized that even though her father was completely insane, he had been right. She had some sort of weird destiny, and whatever that was, she had somehow put a stop to it, or at least a hold on it, today. That didn't mean she wasn't dangerous, and that didn't mean that she wouldn't eventually get her team killed. "I can't stay with you. I can't be a shield agent."

Coulson stared at Skye's still form before speaking. "Of course you can. Skye, nothing that happened here today is your fault. If anything, you saved us all by stopping Raina. That is something you should be proud of."

Skye's head tilted upward, slightly, as she glanced at Coulson. "So, let me get this straight, the fact that you look like someone mistook you for a punching bag, isn't my fault. You do understand that it was my psychotic father that did that to you, right?" Coulson merely nodded his head. "Okay, so I can't control my crazy father. But …" Skye allowed her sentence trail off into nothing as she tried to think of what to say. "He is in there, right now, fighting for his life. God. I know I shouldn't care. I know that I shouldn't feel anything, but I can't help it. He's dying, and it's my fault. That gun was leveled at me, Coulson. That guy was going to kill me."

"Ward being shot, that's not your fault. I know it's sad, and wrong, that it took something of this caliber for everyone to realize that Ward really did care, at least for you, but he put his life on the line when he took that bullet for you. If anything, it was Ward's way of trying to redeem himself for all the bad he has caused. All the lives he took."

"That might be true, but if he dies, I'll never be able to stop blaming myself. I know that I shouldn't because he has done some truly awful things. Things that no person should be able to come back from. Things that should have kept him locked up for the rest of his life. I know that. I do. However, there is a part of me, a pretty big part, that understands him. Gets why he did what he did. Why he aligned himself with Garrett. Honestly, I never even attempted to see things from his point of view before, because I could never figure out how to justify what he did, but now that I have, I understand that the two of us, we're not so different."

"Ward is a murderer, Skye. You're not. How are you alike?"

Skye sighed, before giving Coulson a weary smile. "Before you, before the team. No one ever took a chance on me. No one ever thought that I was more than just some low level hacker. You saw past all of that, Coulson. Even when everyone was doubting you, you never saw me as anything but a _person_. Garrett was that person for Ward. His childhood was horrendous, and I know that you think he was making it all up, but I have seen that kind of pain in a person's eyes before. There is no way to make that up. Ward is a good liar, but he's not that good. He is a haunted man, Coulson. Not just because of his past, but now because of what he's done … all the innocent lives he's taken in the name of Garrett. Then to just watch your mentor, your father figure just disappear into something completely insane. I understand him now, Coulson. As much as I would have hated to admit it before, I think that he deserves a second chance. Almost everyone on this team has been given a second chance at one point or another. Shouldn't Ward be afforded the same option?"

* * *

Ward groaned. The pain in his chest was excruciating, but at the same time he knew he deserved so much worse.

"You're awake." The voice was familiar, even in it's monotone form.

He was shocked to say the least. He hadn't been expecting anyone, except for maybe Skye, to even care about the bullet lodged so close to his lung. "I wasn't expecting you to care if I lived or died." Ward whispered out, his voice hoarse.

Jemma Simmons stared at a point directly above Ward's head so that she wouldn't have to look the devil in the eye. "I didn't. Not really. I wouldn't have tried so hard, if Skye hadn't asked. Well, I assume she asked, I doubt that Coulson would lie about that. Anyway. My job is done." With a curt nod, Jemma turned on her heel and exited the med bay.

Ward stared at the now empty space where Jemma had been standing, and smiled softly. Definitely more pleasant than he had been expecting. Then again, he was just waiting for the time for Coulson to come into the med bay and throw him back into that horrible prison.

"Lost in thought … or planning your escape, because let's face it. A bullet wound, equals I bet your ass." Skye said, as she walked in and sat in the empty seat beside the small gurney that Ward was lying on.

She had intended on having a serious conversation. Something similar to what she had said to Coulson only a couple hours earlier. But seeing Ward's shirtless form in front of her, with his already blood covered bandage, the words seemed to disappear right in front of her.

"If you don't mind me saying. You're the one that seemed to have something say."

Skye shrugged, "I guess." She answered, trying to stall while all her talking points came back to her.

"I have plenty of time," Ward answered, a smirk on his face.

"You seem awfully comfortable considering that you're surrounded by armed agents, most of which, aren't very fond of you right now."

Ward attempted a casual shrug of his shoulders, but winced as it pulled at the stitches in his chest. "You seem to be at least … more fond of me. Well, at least you don't hate me … or at the very least you're not screaming at me about how much you hate me. To me, that's a step in the right direction."

"It's kind of hard to hate someone that just took a bullet for you." Skye sighed, and held up a hand when Ward's mouth bobbed open to say something. "Look, let me say what I came in here to say … or I'll never say it." Ward merely nodded, his face turning solemn and serious. "Don't think that I'm not still angry at you, because I am. It will take a very long time before I'm able to forgive what you've done. But, I'm willing to try. I am sorry that it took something so drastic before I was able to see things from your point of view, Grant. I really am, but you have to realize that anything illegal that I did, as far as I know, it didn't result in death. If it did, it wasn't on purpose. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

Grant nodded, an almost sadness clouded his features. "I'm a murderer, and you're not."

Skye sighed, "Yes. Technically, but I'm willing to try to see all of this from your side of it. I wouldn't allow myself to do that before, because I was so afraid that you were right. That we weren't so different .. and shocker, you were right. We're not very different. Neither of us had anyone in our childhood that really accepted us. That looked at us as a person. As someone with feelings and a beating heart. Then … we both found people that treated us with a molecule of respect and it was like …"

"We found a home."

Skye nodded, "As angry or as much as I thought I hated you, Grant, one thing always rang true in my mind. It was the one thing that has kept me from killing you. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have this family … this home that I've found. For that, Grant, I will be eternally grateful to you. I won't lie, I wasn't happy about that fact before, I hated it. I hated knowing that I owed you. Now, well I really owe you. I wouldn't be alive right now if it weren't for you. Thank you for that."

"No thank you needed, Skye. I would easily give up my life, if it meant saving yours. Out of everything that I did, all the chaos that I caused. Hurting you is the one thing that is unbearable to me. Every time you came down there to see me, I could see the hurt and disgust in your face … in your eyes, and it ate away at me. I promised you that I would never lie to you again, and I meant that. Those kisses," he paused, gauging Skye's reaction before continuing. "They weren't lies either. Why do you think that Garrett was so willing to kill me? Because he knew that I had grown attached. To the team … to you. I hate what I did to everyone. I hate that Fitz is ..."

"Brain damaged?"

Ward sighed, "Yeah. I was just trying to give them a fighting chance, because Garrett saw it fit to shoot them in the head. At the very least, in my mind, what I did, it gave them a chance to survive."

"That's why I know that you're redeemable, Grant. That's why I asked Coulson to give you a second chance. Everyone here has had a second chance in one way or another, and you've proved that you deserve that chance as well. I can't force him to allow it, but I did give him some things to think about. You have to know though, Grant, if he allows it. You won't receive a warm welcome. From what Coulson told me, he had to practically beg Simmons to take you on as a patient. I can't promise that either her nor Fitz will be able to forgive you for what you did to them. I can almost guarantee that May will never see you as anything but a threat. However, what I can promise, is to work on forgiving you and work on trying to get everyone else to at least be respectable toward you. Though that will take some doing."

Ward smiled. "I appreciate everything that you've done for me, Skye. Really, I do. I just, I don't see where I would fit in here. Honestly? I don't want to spend the rest of my life trying to defend myself. I know what I did was wrong. I know I hurt people, and it's something that I'll have to live with for the rest of my life. I don't need the constant reminders, and here? That is all I will get. Reminders of every horrible thing I've done."

"So, if you won't accept a job, if Coulson presents you with one, then what will you do? Where will you go?"

"I honestly don't know."

Skye sighed, "Well, just think about it. Even if you don't join the team, think about staying. I know you don't do well on your own, Grant. At least this way, you won't be tempted."

Ward nodded, "No promises, Skye."

"I wouldn't dare to ask for one." She smiled softly, before standing up. "I gotta go now. I'm late for a team meeting. Coulson is such a stickler for those. Drives me crazy."

With that she disappear from his sight. Maybe Skye was right. Maybe he should stay, if not for himself, then for her. He didn't want her thinking that he was off doing horrible things like torturing small animals. Not again. Never again. With that last thought, Ward drifted off to a nearly peaceful sleep.


End file.
